Nolan Arenado named NL player of the week after hot streak, still trailing in all-star voting

Nolan Arenado, in three big-league seasons, has five multi-home run games. And three came in the last week. His hot streak on Monday earned him the National League player of the week award, MLB announced.

In six games over the past week, the Rockies’ third baseman hit .391 (9-for-23) with a baseball-best seven home runs and 14 RBIs. He scored 10 runs in those six games, the second-most in the majors.

On top of it, Arenado has at least one hit, one run scored and one RBI in each of his past seven games. That ties the longest streak in baseball since 2010. Only Miguel Cabrera matched the mark, in 2013, in his MVP season for the Detroit Tigers.

“I’m just trying to do my job the best I can” Arenado said Sunday. “I had a good week. And it’s happened — I’ve had a good week, then next week is not very good. As long as we win and pick each other up, that’s the key.”

New York Yankees outfielder Brett Gardner was named the AL player of the week after hitting .500 (13-for-26) with nine runs and two home runs.

NL ALL-STAR VOTING

Arenado, though, continues to trail in fan voting for the NL all-star team. He is fourth among third basemen with 2,964,460 votes after the newest tallies were released Monday. Arenado trails top third baseman vote-getter Matt Carpenter of the Cardinals (6,252,327), followed by the Reds’ Todd Frazier and Cubs rookie Kris Bryant.

Troy Tulowitzki remained third among shortstops, trailing St. Louis’ Jhonny Peralta and the Giants’ Brandon Crawford.

Rockies second baseman DJ LeMahieu remains out of the Top 5 in voting.

Patrick, a third-generation Colorado native, is back for his second stint covering the Rockies. He first covered the team from 2005-2009, helping chronicle “Rocktober” in 2007 and also following the team’s playoff run in 2009.

Nick Groke has worked at The Denver Post since 1997, as a sports reporter, city reporter, entertainment writer and digital editor and producer, among other newsroom posts. He also writes regularly about boxing, soccer, MMA and NASCAR.